N.J. Standout High on UM

Mike Bakas

07/25/2002

As University of Miami offensive line coach Art Kehoe made his tour around the entire country looking for offensive linemen that he wanted here, one of his stops was to see a kid that has already finished his high school career.

Former J.P. Stevens High standout Jeff Zuttah is now attending The Hun School in Princeton as a post-grad. He's quickly becoming one of the top overall prospects in the state of New Jersey, thanks to an outstanding senior season last year.

"I just started playing football my junior year in high school," Zuttah said. "I'm going to post-grad school this year so I can have another year. Right before last season, I came down with a bad throat infection and I lost a lot of weight. I was down to 248 at one point and a lot of schools stopped recruiting me. I got back to up about 265 and had a pretty good year."

The talented offensive lineman will start his college career at mid-semester, which means he'll be able to participate in spring drills next year at the school he signs with.

Now at 6-foot-4 ½ and 282, Zuttah is among the most heavily recruited linemen in the state of New Jersey. With 4.95 speed, he has excellent athletic ability for his size.

"I played basketball," he said. "That helped. And I just do a lot of lifting and running. I want to continue to be a good athlete so I can move around real well."

Inside the classroom, he carries a 3.2 GPA and scored an 1160 on the SAT test. That's another reason why college coaches have been recruiting him so hard.

"I now have about 12 offers or so," he said. "I didn't attend any summer camps but I took some unofficial visits to Boston College, Rutgers, and Maryland. On the 27th, I'm going to check out Penn State. They all offered me plus Michigan State, Iowa, Virginia, West Virginia, Kansas State, Temple, and a couple others."

Zuttah said one other school might be getting real close to offering.

"They called my coach right before their coaches left for vacation," he said. "Coach Kehoe delivered a real good message. He said they my tape and were very impressed. He sounded real excited and it sounds like they're getting real close to offering me."

The super offensive line prospect talked about the Hurricanes.

"They're the Hurricanes," he said. "I mean, they're always competing for national championships and it's like an NFL factory there. I really hope they offer because I'd love to take an official visit there and check things out."

Zuttah has one other school very high on his list that he hopes to get an offer from. "Michigan's right up there too," he said. "I grew up a Wolverine fan so I hope that works out too."

In addition to Miami and Michigan, Zuttah has some other schools in mind that he's most interested in checking out.

"I also like Boston College, Penn State, Maryland, and probably Colorado," he said. "I also would like to take a visit out West somewhere, like to Oregon or Stanford."

The standout lineman talked about his goals for this coming season. "I just want to improve my game as much as I can," he said. "I'm always looking to get stronger and faster. Having only played football for two years, I still have a lot to learn so I'm trying to pick up on as many things as I can before I start college."